Pages in this set

Page 1

The USA and the Second World War
After the First World War the USA had returned to Isolationism, but when war broke out in Europe in 1939,
President Roosevelt wanted to help Britain and prepare the USA for war against Germany.
Key Question: How did Roosevelt prepare the USA for…

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Key Question: How did the lives and social status of Blacks change during World War Two?
Black people had suspended their civil rights campaign during World War One, believing they would
get improvements after the war. Nothing happened. Lynching and attacks by rightwing whites continued.
Roosevelt had ordered that blacks…

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In 1941, the army and air force refused to train black officers and pilots. The navy only employed blacks as
kitchen staff (messmen).Black blood could not be used for white casualties. No black women were employed at
all.

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on the point of collapsing. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) set up the New Deal in the 1930s. The
New Deal was the Federal (allstates) Government spending billions of dollars creating jobs, by building dams,
roads, schools and hospitals. Many rich people did not like this because it meant they…

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Some companies were encouraged to make their workers feel patriotic about going to work. They were made to
feel guilty if they were off sick, and were discouraged from asking for payrises. The $175 billion was obviously
not aimed at the worker! The main unions in America agreed not to…

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The USA also took up the challenge it saw from Communism, and the Cold War began. This made
Americans very suspicious of Communism and led to attacks on people suspected of being communists.
In 1947 President Truman announced the Truman
Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. To persuade Congress to vote…

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society's problems ­ alcoholism, teenage hooliganism and even war ­ were because of women following careers
instead of being housewives and mothers. Kitchen and cleaning appliances like washing machines, fridges and
Hoovers were advertised as being `every woman's dream'.
The Suburbs
The suburbs developed in the 1950s. Middleclass families left…

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Key Films to Watch
`The Stepford Wives'(1975) Chilling horror film about a town where all the women are
typical 1950s wives or are they?
'Pleasantville'(1998) A great film starring Reece Witherspoon (Legally Blonde) and
Tobey Maguire (Spiderman) about the effects of the new ideas on a suburban 1950s
town.

Key…

Page 10

The McCarthy `Witch Hunts'
In 1950, McCarthy, a Republican Senator, claimed he had a list of 205 members of the
Communist Party of the US, who worked for the State Department. He never had any
evidence, but just waved his list for the cameras. The HUAC summoned 2,375 men and…